Lawsuit filed by doctor stabbed after Mag Mile lights festival

An Oak Brook doctor who was stabbed in the neck and face during an attempted holdup at a Gold Coast restaurant in November is suing his alleged attacker along with the restaurant and hotel that houses it. (WGN - Chicago)

An Oak Brook doctor who was stabbed in the neck and face during an attempted holdup at a Gold Coast restaurant in November is suing his alleged attacker along with the restaurant and hotel that houses it. (WGN - Chicago)

Jennifer DelgadoTribune reporter

An Oak Brook doctor who was stabbed in the neck and face during an attempted holdup at a Gold Coast restaurant in November is suing his alleged attacker along with the restaurant and hotel that houses it.

Mir Shah says he was violently attacked and stabbed several times by Jimmy Harris in the bathroom of the Westin's The Grill on the Alley on Nov. 17, according to a lawsuit filed Monday in Cook County Circuit Court. The restaurant's bartender was also injured when he chased Harris, who cut him with a knife, police said.

The lawsuit claims the hotel and restaurant at 909 N. Michigan Avenue were negligent when they allowed "unauthorized persons to gain access to their hotel, restaurant and restroom facilities" and didn't perform proper security checks.

Harris, who also goes by the name Jimmie Harris, had been freed from prison eight days prior to the attack. He has at least 60 arrests and nine felony convictions dating to the late 1970s, according to Chicago police, state and court records.

Shah, an oncologist, was out to dinner with his family that night after attending the Lights Festival along the Magnificent Mile. While in the bathroom, Harris approached Shah and announced a robbery before stabbing the doctor in the right side of his neck and face, prosecutors said. Shah is now disfigured and disabled, according to the suit.

Harris, who was ordered held without bond, was charged with attempted murder, aggravated battery and unlawful restraint. A spokesman for The Grill on the Alley declined comment.